6 - June 2025 - Adelaide to Canberra drive

 

Entry 6 – June – 2025 Adelaide to Canberra

From the end of entry 5 till the beginning of entry 6, we spent two weeks at home attending to medical stuff and maintenance on our caravan.

It was reiterated to us it was winter time in the southern regions of Australia. We departed Adelaide, heading to Canberra. Most of the day the temperature had hovered around a chilly 11-13 degrees C and we were expecting a cold night.

Our first night’s stop was at the unstaffed Walpeup caravan park. It was a donation of $10 for a powered site. We set up our small electric heater to a timer switch with the heater coming on for 45 minutes every 1 ½ hours. It was a beautiful comfortable temperature overnight within the confines of our caravan.

The Bureau of Meteorology was predicting maximum daytime temperatures of around 13 – 14 degrees over the next 7 days. Stepping outside from the comfortable environments of our tow tug and caravan virtually took your breath away. It was very cold.

When travelling the most direct route to Canberra from Adelaide we would normally turn left at the town of Tooleybuc and head east across the Hay Plains.

On this occasion, we turned right at Tooleybuc, heading further inland in the state of Victoria to some friend’s home.

The deviation provided a pleasant change of scenery, from the dry barren Hay Plains. We followed the River Murray with a constant view of grand river red gum trees. There were many lakes and many small towns along this section of fertile landscape.

There was a stop to view the Lake Boga silo art.

There was an overnight stop at Reedy Lake. Access to the campground was a few kilometres along a sign posted, dry weather road only. We inspected the track before proceeding. It was soft under foot with water lying to its sides. We decided not to tempt fate and set camp for the night at the day use area on a paved surface. We might not have had the beautiful lakeside views. We did enjoy a nearby bird hide providing some nice viewing of wetlands.

We were nearby the town of Kerang and of interest there were about 57 lakes within this region. Reedy Lake was one of a few allocated as a refuge for bird life.

It was another special area, worth some time exploring during more pleasant weather conditions.

Moving away from the Murray River regions, the country side viewing was still quite pleasant.

Our next stop over was at friend’s home in Violet Town. Anne and Brian, we first met in 2015 whilst travelling near the New South Wales and Queensland borders. We had caught up several times since and it was time for another reacquaintance.

We spent 5 nights at the small country side town of Violet Town. The surrounding country side was quite picturesque, with a grand gum tree covered countryside.  There were visits to various café’s, one in town, another at nearby Strathbogie and another at the nearby township of Benalla. Each one containing other customers of fellow retirees known to Anne and Brian.

Of interest the street they lived on of about 20 homes had one working resident with the rest consisting of retirees.

There was Mary’s community garden located on Mary Street.

There was some sharing of expertise, helping one another. Steve helped Brian solve some caravan door issues he was experiencing and Brian provided some electrical expertise solving issues we were having with our caravan electric awning.

We immensely enjoyed their company and Violet Town’s hospitality.

Continuing towards Canberra we travelled along the Hume Highway. It is a double laned highway in both directions from Melbourne to Sydney, providing easy driving conditions. There are many service centres with food and fuel. There are even more roadside rest areas with toilets. It is a great comfortable route for travelling long distances over a short time line.

We had an overnight stop at Jugiong with a large camping area alongside the Murrumbidgee River. The river level was at the lowest level we had seen. Most likely due to visiting at the beginning of winter. Previously visited by us during spring times with a higher water flow from the winter rains.

The overnight temperature hovered around a chilly -4 degrees. Without the option for access to 240-volt power we utilized our diesel heater. Leaving it on all night. A first-time experience for us, with a very cold overnight temperature. It was great to have an off-grid heater working nicely. Come morning the daylight was struggling to pierce through a heavy shrouding of fog.

The fog didn’t start to clear till around 11a.m. It was cold, wet and muddy. We decided to push on, arriving a couple of days earlier than originally planned at Canberra. Arriving at Canberra we appreciated being connected to mains 240-volt power, looking after our batteries and enjoying the benefits of ample power to keep us nice and warm. Canberra even put on a nice sunset on our arrival day.

There are lots of good shopping opportunities at Canberra. We were both in need of a new pair of walking shoes. $500 for shoes. You do get what you pay for. Mary spotted lamb shanks in the supermarket. One of her favourite foods and a much-appreciated meal.

Canberra can be a tough environment in winter. During our weeks stay, most mornings the ambient temperature dropped to between -4 to -7 C degrees. There were frozen water puddles to watch out for. Our caravan’s black shiny solar panels located about half a metre from our night time pillows were feeling the duress.

We were in Canberra for our granddaughter’s birthday. The kids enjoyed time with their grandparent’s. And those grandparents slept well during the nights. 

Mary and Penny enjoyed time together, preparing some special food.

We spent a busy week in Canberra. The grandchildren’s main focus was to experience lots of birthday celebrations. Our son’s wish list of jobs around their home for Steve’s attention were completed. It was time for everyone to return to their normal life. Especially for us. It was time to head north, leaving the cold winter weather behind and find warmer environments.

5 - May 2025. Port Lincoln, express to Naracoorte, South Australia

 

Entry 5 – May – 2025 Pt Lincoln express to Naracoorte, South Australia

We had spent a month, absorbing some of the Eyre Peninsula highlights in South Australia. For us we could have easily enjoyed another couple of months exploring its attractions.

It was time for us to make hast, with other commitments up the road.

It was a bit of a muted drive, bypassing many locations beckoning for our presence.

We activated the distraction mechanism. Cranking up the tow tugs music machine, listening to some good music from “our days.”

In this instance there was no need to exhaust ourselves, driving all day. We drove till there was an inkling of “that’s enough driving for today.”

The small coastal town of Cowell provided a good R.V. (recreational vehicle) camping area for our first overnight stop. It was about 1 ½ kilometres from town, providing us with a nice walking distance to stretch out our weary bodies and enable us to have a look around town. We had a nice view from our caravan windows of the nearby mangroves with the ocean jetty in the background.  

Our next night was inland from the coastal town of Port Pirie at a R.V. site called “Laurie Park.” It was another dry dusty location with a loud background chorus provided by hundreds of corella birds.

We share the driving duties, regularly changing drivers. This seems to help, lessening the feeling of fatigue from a day of just driving. We were on our third change of planned routes, now deviating to travel through the busy streets in the city of Adelaide to collect a new caravan mattress. We were in good spirits and decided we could easily, collect our new mattress a day earlier than planned.

With two bed mattresses in our caravan, our next stop was at our home base. The old mattress was ejected and we had plenty of day light hours left to put on a few loads of washing.

Opening our carport gates, we found our son’s caravan taking up all the space. The gates were re-closed and our tow tug was left out the front of our home.

Steve was up early the following morning and had just started to mow the back yard, ready to move our son’s caravan onto it. Within a few seconds of starting to mow, our son appeared in the driveway. He was collecting his caravan to take it away for a service.

That’s why we arrived home a day earlier than planned. To obtain the bonus of having the company of our son. Even if it was only for 10 minutes.

With the caravan pantry restocked and the addition of some extra warm winter clothing, we were back on the road again, making our way to Naracoorte.

Our stop for the night was at the football oval grounds at the town of Tailem Bend, another R.V. friendly location. We watched the footy training from the warm environment of our caravan. The outside temperature was very chilly.

We woke to an outside temperature of zero. It was very cold outside.

From Tailem Bend, we chose the less travelled route heading to the town of Kingston. Gosh it was a rough road. It had a paved surface. There were many, many pot holes with a wobbly, undulating surface. We were constantly bounced about and had the need to regular slow to a speed of 60 kph in a speed limit of 100 kph.

This section of road travels along the edge of the Coorong National Park. With a blue sky enhancing the appearance of the Coorong waters, it did look beautiful. We saw pelicans and other birds in the water. Unfortunately, there are limited areas where you can stop to view the Coorong scenery.

We set camp at the Kingston R.V. campground, with a wonderful ocean frontage setting. This was a popular location and can be busy. We chose a site with an uninviting slope. This strategy worked a treat with all new arrivals avoiding our sloping camp area, leaving us with plenty of space to ourselves. By days end, it looked crowded in the other flatter camping areas.

Like previous visits to Kingston its beaches were camouflaged by piles of sea weed.

Kingston is famous for its Big, crayfish.

Of interest, Tailem Bend was about 100 kilometres inland from the ocean. We woke to clear skies with an outside temperature of 0 degrees. The following morning at Kingston, camped about 100 metres from the ocean with a cloudy sky, we woke to an outside temperature of 17 degrees. All reiterating the moderating effect the ocean has on nearby temperatures.

We do like the heightened position of our caravan bed. It is level with all the windows. Opening our eyes first thing in the morning, we look outside through our caravan windows, to assess the weather conditions, without lifting our heads from our pillows.

Kingston provided one of the most delightful sunrises we had experienced in a long time, with colours all around.

We walked some of the streets of Kingston, enjoying viewing various building designs and the street art.

The Bureau of Meteorology had been predicting the arrival of a severe weather front for several days. Whilst at Kingston we incurred the top edge of this front, with the weather radar map showing it was mostly passing by, below us. Though the strong winds did wobble the caravan about quite a bit.

We participated in a family function, parking up, out the back of the Apsley Hotel.

The Bureau of Meteorology had been predicting the arrival of a second severe weather front with warnings of damaging winds and to be watchful of tree and property damage. The predicted arrival time, imminent. We were contemplating our camp for the night at the Apsley Pub. When inspecting our site, we identified some red gum trees with high up limbs overhanging our caravan.

We decided to err on the side of caution and moved on, looking for a location with less hazards. We ended up at a non-staffed caravan park at the town of Goroke. We paid a $20 fee online for a powered site and was sent a code to access the amenities building.

Once we set camp, a check on the weather front showed the forecast had changed with a predicted arrival not for another 20 hours. Grrr.

We did wake to a windy morning. There was a free washing machine and we put a load of clothes into the machine. The clothes were hung out on a provided clothes line and our clothes were all dry within a couple of hours, complements of the strong wind.

We decided it would be wise to stay at the caravan park for a second night and assess where to next, once the weather event had eased.

With the tow tug separated from the caravan we set off to explore the local area.

There was some grand silo art viewing at Goroke and other interesting sights.

The country side looked very dry, not helped by the failure of the wet season arrival. Farmers had been feeding their stock for a period, much longer than normal. We had spoken with a couple of farmers. One was concerned their stock pile of feed was about to run out. Another had spent about half a million dollars sourcing feed for their stock from far and wide. There was an air of anxiety in their persona.

Farmers were worried about the diminishing time line to sow a successful crop. Many were gambling, sowing their crops into the dry earth, hopeful the wet will come. Another gamble, with incurred costs in the hundreds of thousands $, fuel, seed, fertilizer and machinery considerations.

Whilst out on our drive, exploring the local area we experienced thick dust storms from the strong winds, whipping off the freshly ploughed top soil.

There were three lakes nearby, all with camping options. One controlled by a caravan park, one with an open airy setting with swans, ducks and spoonbill birds about. The third smaller lake was surrounded by the native trees and bush environment. There were cockatoo’s, ducks and parrots. We decided to set our next camp at the more natural setting of the smaller lake, once the weather event had subsided.

The rain came and disappeared all too soon. About 6 mm of rain over a 24-hour period was recorded for this region. It was enough to dampen the top layer of soil, annulling the wind damage. Most likely not enough to stimulate crop growth.

Sadly, for the farmers the seven-day weather forecast was missing a prediction of rain.

We drove the 10 kilometres to Lake Ratzcastle and set camp in a pleasing bush setting. Our sense of well-being instantly lifting.

We walked about viewing the lake and its backdrop. It tingled all our feel-good neurotransmitters. When in our caravan, looking out of our picture framed windows at our divine setting we knew no window coverings would be drawn during our time at Lake Ratzcastle.

It was a setting with a background noise provided by the sounds of birds and the wind rustling through the tree canopy.

There were the constant loud screeching calls of the Corellas around us. Every now and then they would take flight elsewhere and we would get excited for some respite on our ears. Alas the similar sound of Galah’s would take over, thankfully not as high pitched. When the Corellas and Galah’s flew off, our background noise changed to a consist quack, quack from the duck population. At dusk we were serenaded by the chattering of Rosella Parrots.

It only became quiet during the night. We loved our nights just as much as the days. It was deathly quiet with no other noise. Fantastic.

The birds were quite skittish, hindering opportunities for getting that special photograph. When Steve wondered about with his camera in hand, he dressed in all black, attempting to camouflage his presence. The dull cloudy skies were letting us know it was winter season, keeping the temperatures coolish. Blue skies always seem to lift one’s spirits, as well as providing good photography colouring opportunities.

 

We loved the grand setting of Lake Ratzcastle.

It was time to return to our home base, attending to medical stuff, tweaking our bodies, helping us to continue our travel lifestyle with our caravan.

We were in a part of Australia more populated than those outback regions. A greater population provides a requirement for more services. This includes a vast network of roads. When in regions of this nature we like to travel through the country side, away from the main busy arterial routes. The scenery is delightful and the quieter roads provide a more relaxed atmosphere.